


Water

by UselessSidecharacter



Category: Dimension 20
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Aquaphobia, Drowning, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fabian being over competitive, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Phobias, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26183008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UselessSidecharacter/pseuds/UselessSidecharacter
Summary: After the Bad Kids get back from Spring Break Adaine has to deal with a newly manifested fear.
Relationships: Adaine Abernant & The Bad Kids
Comments: 13
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> TW for description of drowning.
> 
> I spent more time trying to come up with a title for this work than I did writing it. I will probably change it a couple of times but I’m tired so we’re going with the least imaginative title ever.

The water was trying to force its way in, trying to pry open her lips with its ice cold grip, forcing its way into her nostrils, squeezing her eyes in their sockets.

It was cold, black and all around her, no light penetrating at this depth, it was crushing her like a vice, making her feel like her bones would snap under the pressure.

She had no clue which way was up.

All she knew was that no matter which direction there was the endless, all encompassing, inky black water.

Inky black water which made it feel like her lungs would burst, like they were being torn open by vicious claws.

And then, finally she couldn’t fight the urge any longer and she opened her mouth to breathe. 

The freezing, icy salt water rushed in, flooding her lungs. 

  
  


Everything went black...

And, with gasping, panting breaths Adaine was back in the bathroom of Mordred Manor, collapsed on the ground, her ass aching in pain; she’d only dipped one foot in the water and the memories of what she’d seen in the Nightmare Kings Forrest had come rushing back, taking over her mind with a terror she’d never known, an all consuming feeling of helplessness.

Focusing on controlling her breathing Adaine was able to bring her pounding heart rate down so it didn’t feel like it would burst out of her chest, but she could still feel a burning in her chest, like her lungs were still being suffocated.

Adaine started a bit when there was a knock on the door.

“Adaine?” It was Aelwyn’s voice, with a tone of concern. 

“Are you Ok? I heard a crash?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Adaine called through the door, “I just walked into the door.”

She tried to make it sound less like a lie by forcing a chuckle, thankfully Aelwyn didn’t press her on it; she really didn’t want everyone to know about her newly manifested Aquaphobia, everyone had been through more than enough already this year without having to deal with her being stupid.

Sighing, Adaine clambered to her feet, wincing in pain at the pain in her backside, then she pulled the plug in the bathtub, staring at the whirling water as it drained out; letting her mind wander for a bit before using a damp washcloth, which was the most water she had found that she could deal with, and some spells to wash herself. 

When she was done she filled up the sink with water and submerged her hands, fighting the urge to scream or pull them out, clenching her fists tightly she tried to hold her hands under for a full minute but yanked them out after about twenty seconds when a flash of terror went through her brain.

_ Pathetic. _ She thought to herself. Of course this was completely unfair but unfortunately a lifetime of being held to completely unfair and unrealistic mental standards while enduring emotional abuse can’t be undone in under a year of kindness.

She dried her hands on a towel then pulled on some clothes; before leaving the bathroom and meeting up with the rest of the Bad Kids downstairs. Adaine had been dealing with her inability to come into too much contact with water: obviously it wasn’t great but it was doable, she just couldn’t have baths… or showers… or hold her hands underwater… or drink anything too quickly… or be outside if it was raining a lot.

But it was fine. It wasn’t something she needed anybody to be worried about, she would deal with it on her own and a lifetime of hiding her anxiety from her parents so they wouldn’t think she was weak meant she could easily hide this from her friends, she couldn’t let them think she was weak; after everything they had all gone through they all had far more reason than she did to be messed up.

The problem was, while in day to day life it was easy to not let people notice how she found excuses not to do the washing up, or how she flinched if someone spilt a drink near her, it was going to be a lot more difficult to hide that at the beach.

Previously Adaine had been able to get out of going to the beach with the others, which had happened twice since they got back from the Forest of the nightmare king, but unfortunately her friends had noticed her absence and insisted she came along this time, and she couldn’t let them become suspicious of her so she’d agreed to go, she could easily find excuses to just sit on the sand and read.

“Hey Adaine!” Fig called as she reached the bottom of the stairs, “You ready to go?”

“Yep!”

“Is Aelwyn coming?” Gorgug asked as he picked up his bag.

“Oh, I’m sure Aelwyn has, Erhm… many an important thing to do.” Adaine and the rest of the Bad Kids snorted or rolled their eyes, in Kirsten’s case both, at Fabian’s awkwardness: things had been very uncomfortable between him and Aelwyn since they broke up, both halves of a relationship being obviously and obliviously in love with other people seemed to make hanging out kind of weird.

“She’s busy.” Adaine answered Gorgug, actually she wasn’t but she’d told Adaine she needed some space, which stressed her as she wouldn’t have her sister to help cover for her odd behaviour but she was glad that Aelwyn was feeling more comfortable with setting boundaries.

“Right let’s go.” Riz said, standing up and heading towards the door.

“You’re really excited to show off your tattoos aren’t you The Ball?”

“No! But it wouldn’t be weird if I was, they’re clues! What’s cooler than tattoos tattooed on you?”

“I think a tattoo which says something like ‘Kristen did it.” Would be rad,” mused Fig as they clambered into Gorgug’s van, “then if you die suddenly everyone would suspect Kristen.”

“Hey why me?”

“Well, everyone knows Gorgug wouldn’t murder me, that Fabian couldn’t in a million years murder me, Riz would be the person investigating my sudden and tragic death so there’s no point accusing him, that leaves you Applebees.”

“What about Adaine?” Gorgug asked from the driver's seat.

“If Adaine murdered me then she probably had a very good reason so I’ll leave her be.”

  
  


Both Kristen and Fabian objected to this vehemently and Adaine allowed herself to be drawn into the quiet comfort of being around her friends, just listening to the argument as it grew.

Unfortunately it wasn’t long before they reached the beach and Adaine felt her stomach twist unpleasantly as she gazed upon the endless expanse of water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> I think this is the most people I’ve ever written dialogue for in a single chapter so sorry if it reads badly.
> 
> Feedback is always appreciated a lot, comments always make my day so if you have any thoughts please feel free to comment them


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really didn’t mean for this to take as long as it did, but here is the second chapter; I don’t know when the next one will be posted but hopefully it won’t be too long.
> 
> ——————————————Description of anxiety attack———————————————

Even being this close to the sea made Adaine’s gut wrench slightly, her skin crawling as she stared out at the endless blue-grey expanse, unable to wrest her eyes from it until her attention was pulled back to her friend’s conversation by Fabian shoving open the passenger side door angrily.

“I could murder you  _ easily.” _

“You absolutely could not.”

“I murdered the most feared Pirate of all time!”

“ _ That  _ was not murder, what Adaine did was murder her father, what you did was basically assisted suicide.”

“So I’m the only one who couldn’t kill you?”

“Yeah.” Fig stated, like it was obvious as she climbed out the back of the van.

“Riz murdered Daybreak, Gorgug could collapse a house on me or something, Kristen has created two God’s and Adaine straight up ended her Dad with one punch, and she murdered Doreen.”

Fabian huffed and the other Bad Kids’ laughed before they noticed something.

“Adaine are you ok?” Adaine had just stepped out of the van, to be faced with her friends all looking at her with concerned expressions.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well usually whenever someone brings up Doreen you get super embarrassed and then threaten to beat  _ their _ head in with a ladle.” Kristen explained.

“Yeah, I’m fine; just tired.” Adaine forced her face into a small smile, fighting the slight urge to vomit. “I was up all studying.”

“We already completed Sophomore Year Adaine.” Riz said, his face suspicious.

“Yeah, you don’t always have to be doing work.” Gorgug grinned teasingly, but his eyes were still serious.

“You know me.” Adaine chuckled, “I can't stop myself doing work.”

“Well today is about chilling out and relaxing, so you are officially banned from doing work.” Fig’s tone was one of mock imperiousness as she put her arm around Adaine’s shoulders and pulled her towards the sandy beach, Adaine willing her feet to move normally, something which seemed to be easier when she had her friend’s arm around her.

Adaine tried her best to play along with their usual banter.

“Under what authority?”

“Erm excuse me?” Fig said, pointing to the Anarchist symbol on her forehead.

“Demon King.”

“I don’t think that’s the actual title.”

“I can do what I like; I’m the High Devil.”

Adaine snorted, genuinely amused by her friend; her chest not feeling quite as tight as it had before, but as they approached the sea she still felt very uneasy, luckily it was if Fig could feel her discomfort, stopping quite a way from the lazily lapping waves, and pulling a towel out of her bag, throwing it out onto the sand; the other Bad Kid’s following her lead and setting up around her towel.

As her friend’s started pulling off their outer clothes, stripping down to their swimsuits and shouting excitedly as they ran to the sea, Adaine sat down awkwardly; trying not to draw attention to herself as she pulled a book out of her bag and flipped it open to a random page, not really taking in the printed words, just trying to distract her mind from its own spiralling feelings of fear and worry: fear of the closeness of the water, and the worry which always seemed to grip her when she knew she was displaying what her parents would describe as weakness.

“Adaine?” As wrapped up in trying to mask her rising panic Adaine was shocked when Gorgug placed a hand on her shoulder, managing to avoid jumping in surprise she turned to her friend.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“No, I errrr…” Scrambling for a response which didn’t arouse suspicion Adaine practically blurted out the first thing that came to her head, “forgot my swimsuit.”

“Oh, ok.” Gorgug said, turning to head to the water, Adaine breathing a sigh of relief and turning back to her book and rereading the same paragraph for the second time.

“Wait, can’t you, y’know just pull one out your jacket?” 

_ Shit. _ Adaine silently cursed.

“Oh, Yeah that’s a… really good idea actually,” She responded, faking an upbeat attitude, “I might do that in a bit, I’m just really interested in this book.”

“Ok, cool, you ok if we’re all in the water?”

“Yeah, sure go ahead.”

“Awesome.” Gorgug grinned and ran into the waves. Kristen was floating lazily watching as Riz judged a swimming race between Fig and Fabian; the latter having been aggravated enough by Fig’s assertion that he couldn’t kill her that he formally challenged her, the fighter was growing increasingly annoyed as Fig repeatedly beat him.

“Your feet are too small,” Adaine heard Fig guffaw after her third victory, Gorgug raising her up onto his shoulders triumphantly, “they don’t paddle well enough.”

“My feet are the perfect size thank you.” Fabian said, sulking slightly before getting splashed by Riz and Kristen simultaneously and responding in kind with a grin; Fig cackling from Gorgug’s shoulder’s.

Adaine wanted nothing more than to join her friends but even the thought of the spray sent up by their wild splashes made her skin crawl, so she stayed put; she did get a swimsuit out of her jacket and pulled it on because it felt less weird to be laying on the beach like that than in her clothes.

After a while the rest of the Bad Kids returned to flop on their towels with contented chatter and laughs; pulling out a variety of snacks and drinks from their bags; Fabian immediately challenging Fig to a contest of who could catch the most sweets in their mouth in a row: Fig managed to get to eleven while try as he might Fabian couldn’t even get one into his mouth, after a jellybean landed in one of his nostrils somehow he threw the packet over his shoulder with a yell of annoyance, his friends laughing uproariously.

“I have done this before! I am great at catching food in my mouth!”

“Suuurrrreee.” Kristen grinned.

“Yeah, we believe you.” Adaine smiled; watching the half-elf grow increasingly infuriated as she’d mage handed the sweets away from his mouth.

“It’s ok Fabian, even if you’d won that wouldn’t mean you could murder me, catching candy in your mouth isn’t the same as killing someone.”

“Which I could totally do.”

“I mean if you want to try you’re welcome to.” Fig retorted, standing up and adopting a fighting stance which Fabian mimicked as he jumped to his feet.

“Errm, how about not trying to kill each other today?” Gorgug spoke up with concern.

“Ok, fine.” Fig said, in mock dejection as she sat back down.

“But only because you could murder me.” She added, grinning up at Fabian who just glared back at her.

“So,” Riz interjected before Fabian could be goaded into trying to kill Fig, “I’m going back in, anyone else?”

A chorus of agreement and most of the group stood up, leaving Adaine as the only one still seated.

“Adaine, you coming?” Kristen asked.

“No, I’ll go later,” Adaine responded, scrambling for an excuse again, “I’ve just got some reading I have to do.”

“Ok.” Kristen turned but Fig remained staring down at Adaine.

“ _ Have _ to do?” She asked dubiously.

“Yeah?” Adaine couldn’t work out why Fig was suspicious and had a panic that somehow the bard had, from one sentence, worked out her Aquaphobia.

“As in, like work?”

“Yeah, I guess?”

“Nope, definitely not, you’re banned from work; c’mon this is for your own good.”

Adaine’s book was pulled from her hand and felt Fig’s hand on her shoulder; a second later and she splashed a foot or so down into warm, waist deep water as Fig dimension doored them to the sea.

Panic took over Adaine’s brain for the next few minutes, all she was aware of was that her limbs were thrashing madly and that she could hear her voice screaming in terror as fear welled up inside her, after a few seconds she could feel herself being dragged by arms wrapped around her and she clung onto their owner for dear life.

When she recovered enough to be aware of her surroundings Adaine found herself laying on the sand, a few yards from the water, sobbing; Fig’s arms were still wrapped around her tightly and she hugged her friend back, pressing her face into her shoulder as she slowly managed to stabilise her breathing, one of Fig’s hands moving to stroke her hair comfortingly.

“I’m sorry.” She managed to sob out.

“It’s ok, just breathe, just breathe.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed it, please comment; any feedback is super appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> I think this is the most people I’ve ever written dialogue for in a single chapter so sorry if it reads badly.
> 
> Feedback is always appreciated a lot, comments always make my day so if you have any thoughts please feel free to comment them


End file.
